Chamisa to Visit Russia, China to ask Help in Settling Zimbabwe’s Political Crisis

Nelson Chamisa, the leader of Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), intends to pay visits to Moscow and Beijing to seek help in settling the political crisis that has been gripping his country for over a year now, Chamisa’s spokesman told Sputnik.

The situation in Zimbabwe remains tense since July 2018, when opposition candidate Chamisa refused to concede the defeat to Emmerson Mnangagwa in the presidential race, claiming that the result was rigged.

The country has since been repeatedly shaken by violent protests, with the opposition accusing the government of corruption, rising economic woes and clampdown on dissent​​​. Most recently, on Friday, the opposition had to call off its rally in Harare after a court ruled against the action.

Yet, hundreds of protesters defied the decision, prompting the police to use tear gas and batons and arrest a number of demonstrators.

“The [MDC] president is open and has plans to travel to major international centers, including Moscow and Beijing, some capitals in Europe and the West just to highlight the extent of the problem in terms of how the problem is man-made and how the problem is costing millions of lives and has threatened food security for millions of people,” Nkululeko Sibanda said.

According to the opposition spokesman, the economic situation in the country is unprecedentedly fragile.

“In just a few weeks, I’m told, we would completely run out of electricity. And we haven’t got money to buy electricity from other countries like we have done in other years when there was a drought.

“The situation has been made worse as in the last twelve months we have lost about $3 billion to corruption in one transaction. It means that the country doesn’t have money to pay for electricity, the country doesn’t have money to pay for food,” he argued.

Zimbabwe’s opposition believes that Mnangagwa’s government is not much different from the one of Robert Mugabe, who ruled the country for over 30 years.

Along with blaming the incumbent government for pressuring the opposition, the MDC is also highly critical of the economic situation in the country, which is one of the poorest in the world.